Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Kazuki Morita

Yohsuke Mitani

Yoshimitu Odajima

Junji Takemoto

Tatehiko Inoue

Tooru Ninomiya

Kiyoshi Wakinaka

Hideaki Hamai

Takumi Yamaguchi

Makoto Ochi

Shusaku Kawasaki

Masahiro Saito

Toshiyuki Kitagawa

Hiromasa Sugii

Toshihiro Sakatani

Norio Nakajima

Tosihiko Oohasi

Yoshio Mizutani

Takafumi Koike

An electricity storage unit of the present disclosure includes: an electricity storage device; a holder for holding this electricity storage device; a case having a tubular side wall part and a bottom surface part closing one end of the side wall part, the case being formed with an opening at another end of the side wall part; and a cover for covering the opening. The electricity storage device and the holder are housed inside the case. At least a part of the cover is inserted inside the case. An aperture is formed at least part of a region between an outer periphery of the cover and an inner surface of the side wall part.

Electricity storage unit

An electricity storage unit of the present disclosure includes: electricity storage device; holder for holding this electricity storage device; bottomed tubular case for housing electricity storage device and holder; and cover for covering opening of case. At least a part of cover is inserted into case. With this configuration, since a surface on which a joint between cover and case is formed can be disposed on an opening side of case, it is possible to suppress intrusion of a foreign substance, such as a water droplet.

A hybrid power source connects a secondary battery and an EDLC. A first switch connects the hybrid power source and a lead acid battery in parallel. A power source controlling portion controls power supply to the hybrid power source and the lead acid battery. The hybrid power source is connected to a starter for starting an engine for a vehicle, and also connected to an electric device except for the starter through the first switch, and the lead acid battery is connected to the electric device, and also connected to the starter through the first switch.

Power source system for a vehicle

A capacitor device includes a capacitor unit, a voltage-dividing circuit for outputting a divided voltage obtained by dividing a voltage of the capacitor unit, and a comparator circuit. The comparator circuit causes the charge circuit to operate such that the voltage of the capacitor unit reaches a full-charge voltage. The voltage-dividing circuit includes a semiconductor switching element, and outputs a divided voltage. A control circuit is operable to determine the full-charge voltage to be a high-temperature full-charge voltage by turning off the first semiconductor switching element when a temperature at the capacitor unit exceeds a reference temperature. The control circuit is operable to determine the full-charge voltage to be a low-temperature full-charge voltage that is higher than the high-temperature full-charge voltage by turning on the first semiconductor switching element when the detected temperature is not higher than the reference temperature.

Capacitor device

A capacitor body is laterally contained in a lower holder, to be then pressed by an upper holder. A lead wire is led from the capacitor body in an axial direction, and then, bent toward a wiring board, thereby forming a leg soldered to the wiring board. The lower holder includes a first holding portion extending outward and having a supporter disposed in a stationary state whereas the upper holder includes a second holding portion extending outward and having a bridge stretched between a pair of elastically deformable arms. The first and second holding portions are urged toward the capacitor body, and therefore, axially hold a part of the leg of the lead wire. This configuration can prevent any breakage of a soldered portion of the lead wire due to vibrations so as to enhance vibration resistance.

Capacitor module

A power supply device is used for an apparatus which includes a power generator and a parallel assembly including a main power supply and a load. The power supply device includes a input port connected to an output terminal of the power generator, an output port connected to the parallel assembly, an electric storage element charged with electric power generated by the power generator, a switching unit, a current switcher for restricting a current flowing from the main power supply to the electric storage element, a controller for controlling the power generator such that the voltage of the output port becomes a predetermined voltage. The switching unit is connected to the first input port, the output port, and the electric storage element. The switching unit connects the electric storage element, the power generator, and the parallel assembly in parallel to each other when the electric storage element is charged with the electric power generated by the power generator. The switching unit connects the electric storage element, the power generator, and the parallel assembly in series to each other when the electric storage element is discharged to supply electric power stored in the electric storage element to the parallel assembly. This power supply device can provide an apparatus including only one power generator with a regenerating function.

Power supply device

A power supply device includes an electric storage unit connected to a main power supply and a load via a charging circuit; and a control circuit connected to the main power supply, the charging circuit, a voltage detection circuit, and a current detection circuit. When the electric storage unit is charged up to a steady-state voltage Vcs of the electric storage unit, the control circuit controls the electric storage unit to be charged until the voltage Vc of the electric storage unit reaches a voltage for determining the property deterioration of the electric storage unit. During the charge process, the control circuit calculates at least one of the internal resistances and the capacitance of the electric storage unit to determine the property deterioration of the electric storage unit.

Electric power supply device

In an energy storage device, a charging circuit is electrically coupled to the energy storage section. A first comparator is electrically coupled to an energy storage section, and its output is inverted when voltage Vc of the energy storage section reaches first predetermined voltage Vc. A second comparator is electrically coupled to the energy storage section, and its output is inverted when voltage Vc of the energy storage section reaches second predetermined voltage Vc. A control circuit is electrically coupled to the first comparator and the second comparator. The control circuit obtains period tm from inversion of the output of the first comparator to the output of the second comparator. Capacitance C of the energy storage section is calculated based on this period tm and voltage change width &#x394;Vc between the first predetermined voltage Vcand the second predetermined voltage Vc

Energy storage device

An electric storage device is disclosed, this device can balance voltages across each one of energy storage devices with each other in a short time even if the voltages disperse in a wide range, and also it can reduce needless power consumption. This device includes the energy storage devices and an equalizing voltage circuit coupled in parallel with the energy storage devices. The equalizing voltage circuit includes a balancing resistor, a balancing switch coupled between respective energy storage devices and respective balancing resistors, a discharging resistor coupled in parallel with the respective energy storage devices and having a smaller resistance value than the balancing resistor, and a discharging switch coupled between the respective energy storage devices and the respective discharging resistors. All the balancing switches and all the discharging switches are turned on during the charge to the energy storage devices, and after the voltages across the respective energy storage devices can be balanced with each other, all the discharging switches alone are turned off.

Electricity storage device having equalization voltage circuit

A DC blocking capacitor and a resistor are coupled in series, and coupled in parallel with an electricity storing section. An ON/OFF circuit and a peak voltage holding circuit are coupled in parallel with the resistor. A current sensing section is coupled in series with the storing section, with its output supplied to the peak current holding circuit. Current from a positive to a negative electrode of the storing section is referred to as a positive direction. The ON/OFF circuit is turned on when the current flows in a negative direction, and is turned off when the current flows in the positive direction. An internal resistor of the storing section is found based on a peak voltage and a peak current resulting from the control and held by the respective circuits. A degree of degradation of the electricity storing section is determined with this internal resistor.

Accumulator

According to the configuration and the manufacturing method of forming a moisture proof agent on both surfaces of a circuit substrate after soldering a capacitor connection pin in a vertical direction to the circuit substrate, and electrically connecting the capacitor so as to be in a perpendicular direction to the length direction of the capacitor connection pin at the upper space of the circuit substrate, the possibility of the moisture proof agent attaching to the capacitor is eliminated, the productivity enhances since the moisture proof agent can be easily formed on both surfaces of the circuit substrate, and a capacitor unit of miniaturized and low height configuration is realized since the capacitor is mounted in the horizontal direction in the upper space with respect to the circuit substrate.

Capacitor unit, and its manufacturing method

In an electrical storage apparatus including an electric storage device connected between a main power supply and a load, a first bypass FET and a bypass diode which are connected in series between the main power supply and the load are provided, and first and second main path FETs connected in series between the electric storage device and the load are provided. A controller judges that the first bypass FET suffers an open-circuit failure if the voltage (Va) of the load is equal to or smaller than the first threshold value Vthor if the voltage (Vc) at the connection point between the first bypass FET and the bypass diode is equal to or smaller than the second threshold value Vth, when the first bypass FET is turned on and the first main path FET and the second main path FET are turned off.

Electrical storage apparatus for use in auxiliary power supply supplying electric power from electric storage device upon voltage drop of main power supply

A charging apparatus suppresses rise in temperature of an internal chip of a charging element. The output signal obtained from a current detecting portion for detecting charging current to a capacitor and from a voltage detecting portion for detecting a difference between a voltage (VC) of capacitor and a voltage corresponding to DC power supply is integrated by integrator. The charging is carried out by controlling power of a charging element to a predetermined value using an output signal of the integrator and at a time near the completion of the charging, the charging element is controlled by constant-voltage-control-circuit so as to charge the capacitor up to a predetermined voltage. Consequently, the maximum temperature inside the charging element is reduced, thereby providing a charging apparatus with high reliability.

Charging apparatus

Electric storage device is provided which is capable of smoothly charging storage elements and reliably detecting an overvoltage of each of the storage elements. Electric storage device includes charging/discharging limiting circuit. Charging/discharging limiting circuit includes charge element, discharge, control unit, charging current detection unit, voltage detection unit, valuable reference voltage source, and voltage comparison unit. A magnitude of valuable reference voltage source that is connected to an input terminal on a first side of voltage comparison unit is adjusted by charging current detection unit. Detection signal from the voltage detection unit is given to an input terminal on a second side of voltage comparison unit.

Electric storage device

A vehicle power supply device has a capacitor unit including capacitors storing auxiliary power; a temperature sensor; a charge circuit; a capacitor-unit current detector; a capacitor-unit voltage detector; a controller; a storage; and a determination unit. The determination unit determines the degradation level of the capacitor unit based on at least one of an internal resistance standard value and a corrected calculated value of capacitance. This structure determines degradation of the vehicle power supply device more accurately than ever, so that the device can be used until the end of the actual life.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Kazuki Morita